Shaw hits game-winning 3-pointer to lift CCU men's basketball team

“I blessed it, absolutely,” Ellis said. “He graduates in May so when you graduate you can go work on a graduate degree and there’s a graduate degree he wants to pursue [elsewhere] and I think that’s good.

“And my goodness, you’ve got Elijah [Wilson] and Jaylen [Shaw] and all those guys [at guard]. I’m happy for him. He’s met his obligation to us. As long as they graduate and meet that and we don’t have things in the graduate area they [want to pursue] they can maneuver. You can’t hold somebody back.”

Trapps sustained a serious knee injury his freshman year that threatened his college basketball career. He made it back for the 2013-14 season and appeared in 18 games over two seasons before carving out a bigger role off the bench as a junior.

But with Wilson, Shaw and Colton Ray-St Cyr all expected to return as regulars in the backcourt next season – not factoring in the uncertain future of point guard Shivaughn Wiggins, who is suspended indefinitely from the program – Trapps would have remained in a limited role as a senior here.